New Year, New Planner

Like many papercrafters I love planners, journals, books and all things made with paper.  Each fall and early winter I begin the search for the next year's planner.  Back in September I purchased an Erin Condren planner like this one below http://www.heidiswapp.com/capture-30-and-memory-planner/and love it!

It's working well for me for both work and my life.  I'm enjoying decorating it and being "creative" in a small way.  However, because my work schedule and task lists are so heavy, there isn't any room for memory keeping, journaling or a gratitude list.  So, when Heidi Swapp and Big Picture Classes announced Capture 30 and I saw this planner that was available as an additional purchase as part of the class I knew this is what I was looking for! 

Check out Heidi's announcement on her blog here:   http://www.heidiswapp.com/capture-30-and-memory-planner/

   To sign up for Capture 30 at Big Picture Classes, click on this link:         http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/classes/details/capture-30

 As soon as I get a chance to photograph the inside of my album I'll post some    photos.  Heidi calls this album the 2015 Memory Planner and that is how I am going to use it.  I've always wanted a dedicated place that I could jot down what I did with my day and things I want to add to my scrapbook/Project Life albums.  I'm excited to find out what Heidi has in store for us during the month of January as she helps us set up our planners and get 2015 underway.  In the meantime if you want to see more of the 2015 Memory Planner check out my Pinterest board of the same name.  

Art of Observation Week 6 Memory Files

 For this week's assignment I tried using one of Heidi Swapp's Memory Files from her Color Magic Collection.  It starts out mostly white with just a design (in this case a shell/scallop design).  For the front I used a mist from my LSS and for the back I used a Mr. Huey mist.  I used the Mr. Huey mist on the inside as well as it is only white (no design).  If you try the Color Magic Memory Files you'll definitely want to watch a video to see how Heidi does this.  My red did not turn out as vibrant as I had hoped.  Heidi told me I needed to do more layers of red.  Which is what I did with the black but boy that was messy!

It was difficult to make sure that the black didn't end up on the red and vice versa.  I'm sure it gets easier with practice.  Here is a link to Heidi's collection
http://store.scrapbook.com/products/heidi%20swapp%20memory%20files.html?gclid=CNnKnbDBl7ACFQtThwodciiT0w
And here is a link to a YouTube video of Heidi showing how to mist the Color Magic Collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hmAeMuo8tE&feature=BFa&list=PLE93CBE4DEA0D7B80

The theme for this week if you can't already tell was "love" so I'll be using this Memory File for all the things I love on our trip to see my oldest son and DIL in California.  I like that I'll have the two little paper bags to hold memorabilia in and the "openable" to add journaling to.  I recovered the openable with leftover paper from one of the hearts so it matched.  In the future I'll just make my own little book.

Art of Observation Week 2 Memory File

Anticipation was the second week's theme for Art of Observation.  However the file that we created will eventually hold two weeks of classwork.  In the photo below two file folders are held together with a strip of embossed cardstock acting as a binding.  This file will also hold photos of our trip to Tahoe in September.

The first section will be completed towards the end of the class so this is blank for now.

The inside of the second folder is the Anticipation part.  Heidi provided a download to print out where we can add in our itinerary, description of the trip, a checklist of things to remember and the dates involved.  I added a FotoStack that I made.  (I believe Heidi's FotoStacks are not available currently and may not become available until her next release after Summer CHA).

See yesterday's post for links to all Heidi's Memory File items and YouTube videos showing how to use them.

Art of Observation Week 1 Memory Files

I finally finished up a couple of week's projects for my Art of Observation class over at Big Picture Classes (BPC).  This one is from Week 1 with a theme of "Beautiful"

The folder is from the No Limits Memory Files collection.  The rest of the pieces are cardstock that I had on hand.  The vellum piece has a quote that Heidi supplied as a download.  There are no photos yet as I'm using this Memory File for an upcoming trip in September to visit my oldest son and DIL.  We'll be visiting Tahoe as part of that trip and I'm sure it'll be easy to take lots of "beautiful" photos.
I'll be back with this Memory File once its complete this fall.

Use this link to see all of Heidi Swapp's Memory File items http://store.scrapbook.com/products/heidi%20swapp%20memory%20files.html?gclid=COKY9fPKj7ACFegbQgodBCoaoQ
Here is a link to YouTube videos featuring the Memory Files
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Heidi+Swapp+Memory+Files

Project Life Blog Hop

Welcome back to our monthly blog hop and Happy National Scrapbook Day! 
Project Life has been a little bit of a challenge for me this year.  I've not taken a lot of photos this year at least yet.  There's been a few reasons for that.  For one, life has been pretty ordinary & I just didn't feel motivated to capture just the routine day in/day out things.  I use Week in the Life for that.  Secondly, I've become very conscious of how many albums I already have created and the space that they take up so I'm trying to find a balance between preserving the memories of my life (ordinary or not) with the amount of materials I'll leave behind to my children/grandchildren one day. So I switched to a monthly format for February through March instead of a weekly format.  In May I'll switch back to a weekly format as we have several things scheduled in May that will provide photos.
This is also the second year that I have done (or attempted) A Week in the Life (WITL) in my Project Life (PL) album.  Ali Edwards' set the last week in April for WITL.  I suprised myself and took 54 photos in one day which I think has to be a record for me.  However, there are days I only took 1-3.  I did pretty well with the journaling although I have some ideas for next time (I think Ali will be doing this again later this year) that I think will help prompt me to write down some other details.  I think I'll adapt Ali's journaling sheets for that. I want to add prompts to remind to write down what I'm reading, restaurants we go to, movies we watch, etc.
So here are my regular April pages.  I had hoped to have my Week in the Life pages done too but
I'm still working on them.

left side

right side

left side

right side

Not too much going on - you can probably see the weather was back & forth.  Spring one day, winter the next. I used the journaling cards from the Cobalt kit along with some items from Simple Stories.  I can't remember if they were from Life Documented or year.ography sets.  A little Easter basket added to the photo of my cats. I also put the postcard for the Art of Observation class I received with my scrapbook.com order along with my Heidi Swapp Memory Files stuff.  So nothing fancy or exciting - just me and my life!  Thanks so much for hopping by!
If you've been hopping along from the start the next blogger to visit is Lois & you can find her here http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

     

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com   To start at the beginning START HERE

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

A little of this, a little of that...

The last 6 days have been pretty busy.  I've been taking lots of photos for A Week in the Life. On my best day I took 54 photos and another day I only took 2 or 3.  The rest of the days I took between 12-25 photos.  I stopped at the kiosk at CVS to get those printed & I'll pick them up tomorrow.  I'm using the downloadable sheets that Ali Edwards provides for the journaling and have kept up fairly well.  One of my biggest problems is that I work in Mammography & Ultrasound in a Women's Imaging Center.  As a Certified Breast Patient Navigator I can not photograph most of what I do at work. And frankly the rest of my week is not that interesting..however as Ali and Stacy (Julian) are fond of saying its just as important to document the everyday, small moments of life as it is the big ones so I took some photos that I normally would not. Frankly I was suprised to see that the one day had 54 photos.  I actually took more but weeded some poor shots out.  I'm hoping to work on getting my photos (& journaling in my Project Life album tomorrow. I combine the two projects as I try to limit the numbers of albums I create yearly to a minimum.
I've been playing with different parts of Heidi's Memory Files.  I'm waiting for more of her products to be delivered before I finish 3 Memory Files I have started.  It would be nice to keep up with the class but I don't want to rush these.  I am making these for a trip my husband & I are taking in September to see our oldest son & daughter-in-law.  We'll be visiting Lake Tahoe with them and I really excited about the trip!  I love that you can have so many photos in one Memory File with her system.  I hope to have some time tomorrow to work on this as well.
I'd also like to do one piece this weekend for May Flaum's class A Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  We are at the end of this 12 week class -sadly :(  I know May is going to repeat this class.  I can't say enough about May & this class.  It was amazing! I may even take it again even though it will be the same material.  By the time it runs again I will be in a different place creatively and I think I would still get a lot from it.
I hope that you have checked out Big Picture Classes upcoming FREE event - their National Scrapbook Day's Creative Crop.  I really enjoyed this last year and got quite a few pages done.  I need to straighten up my craft room when I'm done in there tomorrow so that I'm ready to go next Saturday.  To check it out or register, click on the Creative Crop badge to the right of this post.
What are you working on this weekend?  What classes are you taking right now?

Martha Stewart Home Office Collection with Avery

I'm still working on several different Memory Files for Heidi Swapp's Art of Observation.  I was able to get to Staples to look for the Rubbermaid Magazine Holder so that I could put my Memory Files into my album.  While browsing I came across Martha Stewart's Home Office Collection as I was looking for some more file folders.   I found these file folders in the photos - they are vertical file folders!  I thought - "wow, that would be cool to try using those for the Memory Files!"  Each package (there were several different styles to choose from) comes with 3 file folders.

 The package of 3 file folders.

 A close-up of the label.

Unfortunately, after opening the package I found that the vertical file folder is closed on 2 sides and only open on 2!  So now I think I'm going to cut open the 3rd side.  I'm still thinking about this.

Here's a single folder closed.
They did have these in the traditional file folder style in various designs so its still worth taking a look at this collection if you are looking for file folders for creating Memory Files.

I'll let you know (& show you) what I end up doing with these.

Creating a mini-book for Heidi Swapp's Memory Files

I am taking Heidi Swapp's Art of Observation class at Big Picture Classes right now.  We are in Week 3 however I'm still working on Week 1's project.  One of the elements for the Memory File we are creating is a Mini-Book.  Here is a look at creating a file folder for that mini-book.  I'll post more on the mini-book as I continue with it.  Email me if you need more information. If you are not taking the class and do not have the templates I think you could freehand the file folder template.

Print two copies of page template #2
Cut first template out on the inside line
Cut second template out using the outer most line
See examples above

Trace each template onto cardstock
Cut out along lines for each

Cut piece of cardstock 8 1/4 inches x 4 inches to use to
act as the spine to connect the front and
back of the file folder
You may want to check the vertical measurement -
I had to cut a little more than 8 1/4 inches to match
the file folder

Using a strong adhesive, adhere each piece of
file folder to the spine

This is what my sample piece looks like inside when open

Here is a close-up (sorry its blurry)
You can see just a little of the spine showing through.
I did not put the two file folder edges right up to each other
so that when I add to the mini-book it will still lie flat.

Here is what the outside of the file folder looks like
when open

The finished file folder